I just purchased another 3rd gen on Thursday. It's an 85 IROC Z with a 350 swapped in and not very well as far as wiring goes.

of course the guy I got it from insisted it drove like a month ago but it wouldn't start when I came to get it. It turned over and sounded ok so I was pretty confident I could get it running.

got it home and started going through the rat's nest of wiring under the hood. Bad splices, random cut wires. It's a mess. Anyway the BAT on the coil/distributor was connected to a solid red wire on the main harness. Multimeter reads 50 ohms to ground on that wire, I have no idea what it does though, there was also two other wires spliced into it that red wire. One went to the alternator's exciter wire and the other went into the cab and was disconnected with about 1" stripped off the end. Maybe it got snagged and pulled out of whatever it was connected to... but these definitely weren't connected to ignition hot like they should be!

my question is the wiring diagram shows the coil should be connected to the ignition via a heavy gauge pink wire and there is about 6" of that on the connector to the coil. However there is no evidence of a cut pink white anywhere in the engine bay. There is one other pink wire of the correct size but it is twisted with a blue wire of the same size... can anyone tell me where this wire is supposed to go? Does it go through the firewall with the rest on the passenger side? Is it still a pink wire?

I'm tempted to run a small wire on the driver side to a relay and just run the coil off of that but I would rather do it right. I did hardwire it to 12v and the car fired right up so that was a big relief! I just need to figure out what the deal is with where it is actually connected to!

thanks!

 

I think I found it. Wouldn't you know right after making a post but I might as well share for the next guy.

it appears it is supposed to go to through the firewall on the driver side.i pulled the corrugated plastic shield open and there was a pink wire the right side so I gave it a tug and wouldn't you know out comes a cut wire the exact length to go over to the coil! Perfect! I double checked it has 12v ignition on and everything! If this isnt the right one someone let me know but it seems perfect. I have no idea why this idiot cut it and instead wired the coil to some random red wire... anyone know what the red one actually does?


coincidentally I'm fairly certain. That the driver side firewall connector is also where the alternator voltage ref and exciter wires go. I need to double check though.